The disclosure pertains to a process for removing undesirable surface material from flat materials either in sheet or continuous form. In particular, the disclosure pertains to a method and apparatus for removing scale from the surfaces of processed sheet metal by subjecting the processed sheet metal to tension from a recoiler and passing the sheet metal through a plurality of rollers having a staggered arrangement generating a serpentine path of the sheet metal through the rollers and a wrap angle sufficient to break scale from the sheet metal.